Holy Cross lecturer raising awareness of deaf culture

Sunday

Oct 6, 2013 at 6:00 AMOct 6, 2013 at 11:45 PM

By Jules Becker, CORRESPONDENT

John Pirone knows firsthand about the issues raised in the play "Tribes." As a deaf man, the 37-year-old Holy Cross ASL/deaf studies lecturer and interim director has dealt with them throughout his life.

Now Pirone is helping to explain those deaf culture issues as a consultant on Nina Raine's 2010 play, now in its SpeakEasy Stage Company area premiere at the Boston Center for the Arts.

"I am the educational resource provider, expanding extra ideas," he said in a recent interview. "I've been bringing respect for the deaf, using social media emails and talking to the community."

Raine's acclaimed play focuses on a young deaf man, Billy, and his struggle within his hearing family.

"The issues I teach are within the play," he observed. "There are a lot of underlying messages. Billy grew up with a hearing family. That is a reflection of many deaf people in America."

Pirone also served as a consultant on the Huntington Theatre Company area premiere of the dramatization of the Ralph Ellison modern classic "Invisible Man." Identifying in some ways with the profoundly disrespected African-American title character, Pirone said, "Nobody really sees him as a human being in his natural identity." Ultimately, he added, "He becomes visible to himself. The parallels are the same."

Pirone happily pointed to some positive changes for deaf people.

"Today, many hearing parents are teaching babies to sign (American Sign Language)," he said. "The reality is that a lot of families are bilingual (fluent in ASL and English)."

But he added that many people still believe it's too radical when the deaf don't connect to the hearing world.

In the play, Billy's father, Christopher, believes in mainstreaming and compares deaf people to Muslims, for whom he has little respect.

Pirone's own parents — John, a retired company general manager, and Joan, who worked with Lakota Native Americans — became fluent in signing.

"My mother completely supported and encouraged me to be myself, to develop my own identity," Pirone said. The same goes for his father. "My dad is the complete opposite of Christopher."

Pirone cited the 1960 research of linguistics scholar William Stokoe describing ASL as a language as valid as English or any other. "At first, deaf people resisted (regarding it as such)," he said.

But soon schools began teaching ASL and now many colleges, like Holy Cross, teach deaf studies. He pointed out that since the landmark 1990 American Disabilities, using ASL and having an interpreter (Kristina Miranda for Pirone's own Telegram interview) is a right.

Still, full respect and acceptance remain more of an ideal than a reality, Pirone said.

"Today we are still oppressed as a people because ASL is still an oppressed language," he said. He addresses what he calls "linguicism" in his deaf studies courses.

"We try to show that deafness is not a medical condition but a culture," he said. "Many deaf students do not know their own culture. We want the acceptance of both cultures as equal."

SpeakEasy Stage is giving a very moving hearing to "Tribes'" remarkable exploration of the issues that Pirone and protagonist Billy share. In the company's smartly intimate re-configuration of the BCA's Roberts Theatre, theatergoers totally surround the vividly detailed set, effectively becoming extended family. Very little space separates front-row audience members from family patriarch Christopher and wife Beth as they argue about their children.

Singer Ruth and thesis writer Daniel are back home. Judgmental Christopher calls them parasites, while uncommonly empathetic Ruth defends them. A third child, Billy — deaf from birth — ends up alone at the dining room table without a true listener. Christopher, insistent on mainstreaming Billy, gives more attention to learning Chinese than ASL. Beth taught him to speak and employ hearing devices.

Only Sylvia — the daughter of deaf parents who will soon be deaf herself — fully "hears" Billy. While teaching Billy ASL, she also gives him her love. Will their love transcend the differences between them?

Director M. Bevin O'Gara seamlessly articulates all of the diverse points of view and emotional connections in Raine's touching play. James Caverly, a Gallaudet University graduate who has acted with the National Theatre of the Deaf, beautifully evokes Billy's frustrations with family members, his emotional openness with Sylvia and his evolving sibling connection to Daniel. Nael Nacer captures all of the complexities of caring but deeply conflicted Daniel. Demonstrating great range, Nacer's performance is as richly textured as Raine's play.

The other members of the strong ensemble do equally well moving between notes of discord and harmony.

Surtitles on overhead panels translate ASL dialogue except when Sylvia interprets for Billy as his pride as a deaf man emerges in the later going.

By giving voice to ASL and deaf cultures, "Tribes" resonates with an understanding that transcends diversity. SpeakEasy's benchmark premiere powerfully champions that cause.